Clothes carrier

ABSTRACT

A clothes carrier apparatus made of a flexible elongated piece of material and having a handle at one end for gripping the carrier and connecting means on the other end thereof for connecting coat hangers, or the like, thereto. The clothes carrier is adapted to set across the shoulder for support of the clothes which clothes may be enclosed in a garment bag, dress or coat carrier container. The coat carrier may also have an attachment for attaching the loaded clothes carrier to a car hanger, door hook, or the like, and is flexible so as to be easily rolled or folded for storage.

United States Patent [1 1 Ward [451 Sept. 18, 1973 CLOTHES CARRIER [76] inventor: Bobby L. Ward, 8402 Lewis PL,

Orlando, Fla. 32809 [22] Filed: Jan. 17, 1972 [2]] Appl. No.: 218,538

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 1l,369, Feb. I6, 1970,

abandoned.

[52] US. Cl 224/45 T [51] Int. Cl. A45f 3/00 [58] Field of Search 224/45 T, 5 R, 55; 294/26, 57

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,268,134 8/1966 Baston et al. 224/55 3,606,967 9/197] Roberts 224/45 T 2,629,529 2/1953 Threeton 224/45 T 3,564,590 2/l97l Hebel 224/45 T Primary Examiner-Robert G. Sheridan Assistant Examiner-Lawrence J. Oresky Attorney-Duckworth & Hobby [57] ABSTRACT A clothes carrier apparatus made of a flexible elon gated piece of material and having a handle at one end for gripping the carrier and connecting means on the other end thereof for connecting coat hangers, or the like, thereto. The clothes carrier is adapted to set across the shoulder for support of the clothes which clothes may be enclosed in a garment bag, dress or coat carrier container. The coat carrier may also have an attachment for attaching the loaded clothes carrier to a car hanger, door hook, or the like, and is flexible so as to be easily rolled or folded for storage.

1 Claim, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEUSEH 8 I975 FIG. 6 /5 FIG? INVENTOR. BO B BY L W ARD Wk/Mk1 CLOTHES CARRIER This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11,369 filed Feb. 16, 1970 now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to carriers and especially to those carriers adapted for carrying a load over a person s shoulder and is especially suited for carrying clothes on clothes hangers and in garment bags, suit and coat carriers.

As more and more people travel especially upon airplanes or long distances on business trips, and the like, the use of garment or clothes-carrying bags have become popular in recent years, in which suits, coats, and the like, are placed in the bags on coat hangers which extend through the bag and are held so that the suits, coats, and the like, do not get bent, folded and wrinkled, as was the case in older type luggage in which the suits were folded and packed in a suitcase. These garment carriers become quite heavy and are hard to handle with large numbers of coat hangers where only one or two fingers are gripping the coat hangers. Alternatively, these bags are sometimes folded over one s forearm, particularly if these garment carriers must be held for long periods of time while waiting in line for airline tickets or waiting to board an airplane, train, and the like, thus becoming a great inconvenience and requir.- ing substantial physical effort on the part of the owner. To overcome this problem, one type of garment bag has been designed which has a handle in its mid-section so that the garment bag can be folded and held in the middle with the handles and carried similar to a suitcase. Also various types of coat hangers have been suggested for use in garment bags as well as means for holding the coat hangers in place. It has been suggested to have a handle on the hanger end of the garment bag. This, however, has not proved to be of much use since if the handle is held, the coat hangers andsuits tend to slide down in the garment bag requiring that the coat hangers be tied together and held without the use of the handle.

Various types of garment bags for storage of clothes during the off-season have also been suggested but are not pertinent here and finally it has been suggested to provide an article carrier which is an elongated piece of material having handles at each end for carrying firewood, and the like, in a sling fashion and it has been suggested to have shawl straps and luggage carriers or parcel carriers having a handle and a ribbon for wrapping around the luggage for holding with the handle, and may be used for carrying books, shawls and luggage but are not generally used or available today.

The present invention, on the other hand, provides a clothes carrier for carrying suits, coats, and the like, on hangers or in garment bags and clothes carriers in a convenient manner, utilizing the shoulder and provides other conveniences such as the ease with which a number of coat hangers may be quickly hooked to a car hanger, door hook, or the like. The present clothes carrier is also flexibly designed so as to be easily stored and may be reenforced for added strength.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to clothes carrier made ofa flexibly elongated piece of material such as plastic, leather, or a canvas or duck cloth material and has one end having a handle which may be formed either separately or integrally with the elongated carrier and is adapted for gripping with a persons hand for holding the carrier over the shoulder. The other end of the carrier has an attachment member for attaching coat hangers, garment bags, coat or clothes bags, or the like, whereby the clothes may be conveniently carried over the shoulder. The over-the-shoulder portion or strap has a large section for spreading out the force over a larger area passing over the shoulder, while the coat hanger attaching end may have a reenforced aperture, or the like, therein for attaching to the coat hanger in an automobile or onto the hooks sometimes found on the back of doors, and the like, for hanging coats.

The present invention is also adapted for having a rotable handle and means for holding the clothes carrier in a folded or rolled position for easy storage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from a study of the written description and the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a person utiliz ing a preferred embodiment of the present invention with a clothes-carrying bag connected thereto; FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 isa view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3; FIG. 5 is a view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 2; FIG. 6 shows asectional view of a second embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIGQ7 is a view taken along line 7-7 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is a view. taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1, a clothes carrier 10 is shown on a mans shoulder having garment bag 12 attached thereto by coat hanger 13 extending from the garment bag 12 and connected to a metal loop 14 which of course could be of other material than metal but has to be sufficiently strong to hold coat hangers with clothes and bags hanging thereon which can add up to substantial weight. Clothes carrier 10 has an elongated member 15 which may be a flexible flat material such as leather, plastic, canvas or duck cloth, or the like, to which the C-shaped loop 14 is attached and reenforced. The other end of the elongated material 15 has a handle 16 fixedly attached thereto and being held by a hand 17 which passes through an opening 18 to hold the handle 16. The portion 20 of the carrier material 15 is advantageously of a sufficiently large area to cover a large portion of the man lls shoulder so that the pressure applied to the shoulder by the weight of the bagIZ and counteracting force from the mans hand 17 will be spread out over a larger area to provide a more comfortable sling over the shoulder and aperture 21 is shown in the material 15 and would normally be reenforced and is adapted for hanging the bag 12 or a number of suits, or the like, on coat hangers connected to the loop 14 to the hangers normally found inside an automobile and may be conveniently used for hanging the bag 12 in airplanes, on doors or other hook-type hangers located in business establishments.

Turning now to FIG, 2, a sectional view can be seen of the carrier 10 having elongated material 15 and having attachment member 14 for attaching coat hangers which is reenforceably attached at 22 to the elongated material 15 and also having an aperture 21 therein which has reenforcement 23 therein to prevent ripping or tearing of the elongated member 15 under pressure. A larger aperture 18 forms a part of the handle 16 and allows an individuals hand to grip the handle 16 for swinging the clothes carrier 10 over the shoulder for towing clothes on hangers, and the like.

FIG. 3 shows a view along line 33 in which handle 16 may be seen as having reenforced section 24 therein even if this might not be necessary depending on the material that clothes carrier 10 is being made of. The aperture 18 can be seen as can the reenforcement 23 of the aperture 21 passing through the elongated flexible material 15; and the hanger holding attachment 14 can be seen to be reenforceably held at 22 to the material 15.

FIG. 4 is a section of the hanger attaching means 14 which is illustrated as a metal loop because of the strength needed at this point being held by reenforcement material 22 of the elongated member 15.

FIG. 5 shows a cut-away sectional view of the handle formed into material 15 and having reenforcement member 24.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a second embodiment can be seen of a clothes carrier having a hanger attachment means 14 attached to elongated flexible piece of material 15 and reenforced at 22. An aperture 21 is provided being reenforced at 23 as is an aperture 18. This embodiment differs in that handle 30 is rotably mounted to the material 15 and has a reenforcing steel wire or cable or other material to provide added strength in the handle portion of the carrier 10. Handle 30 may be made of wood or plastic or any other suitable hard material and it will of course be clear that the reenforcing wire 31 could also be extended along the length of the elongated member 15 so as to reenforce the whole clothes carrier 10 and could be attached to member 14 for reenforcing the hanging portion and to reenforcement 23 of aperture 21.

FIG. 7 is taken along line 7-7 and shows the handle 30 having a wire loop 32 engaging one end with the wire 31 extending around to engage the other end of the handle 30. The material 15 of the elongated member can also be used to provide strength to the handle. Handle 30 rotates on an axis 33 to allow some flexibility in gripping the clothes carrier.

FIG. 8 shows a sectional view of the handle 30 held by material 15 and the wire 31 wrapped around a groove 34 of a reduced tubular portion 35 of the elongated tubular handle 30.

It will be clear at this point that a clothes carrying apparatus for carrying and supporting garment bags and luggage over the shoulder has been provided but that other embodiments and variations are contemplated. For instance, it should be clear that variations in the clothes attachment 14 are anticipated such as by varying the material, which could for instance be a flexible material the same as elongated strap 15 and that elongated flexible member 15 does not have to be of uniform width but could be narrowed at either end and broadened out only over the shoulder where it is desirable to spread the load being applied to the shoulder, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Many variations are contemplated in the design of the handle for the present clothes carrier as well as for connecting the loaded clothes carrier to car hangers, and it is also contemplated to provide the unit with means for holding it in a closed position when rolled up or folede which could be a small container or bag for sliding it into or it could have one of the many sticky materials attached at pertinent points for holding it in a rolled position for storage.

Accordingly, this invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed herein since these are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

I claim:

1. A clothes carrier apparatus comprising: a flexible flat elongated member having two end portions and a shoulder support portion'between said two end portions for supporting a load on a persons shoulder; one said end portion of said elongated member having rotatable handle means formed therein adapted to be gripped and held including an opening in said flexible flat elongated member for receiving apersons hand therethrough and a gripping portion providing a hand gripping surface for holding said flexible flat member at one end with a persons hand when said flat member is placed over a persons shoulder; handle means reinforcing means attached to said elongated member to reinforce said member against tearing when heavily loaded, said handle means reinforcing means being located at the junction of said handle means with the remaining portion of said elongated member wherein said handle reinforcing means is embeded in said elongated member on three sides of said opening and is looped around opposite sides of said rotatable handle means;

means for attaching coat hangers on the other end of said flat flexible member including a loop formed into said elongated member for attaching coat hangers; said loop having reinforcing means to reinforce said loop against tearing of said flat flexible member; and said flat member being adapted to be rolled up for storage when not in use. 

1. A clothes carrier apparatus comprising: a flexible flat elongated member having two end portions and a shoulder support portion between said two end portions for supporting a load on a person''s shoulder; one said end portion of said elongated member having rotatable handle means formEd therein adapted to be gripped and held including an opening in said flexible flat elongated member for receiving a person''s hand therethrough and a gripping portion providing a hand gripping surface for holding said flexible flat member at one end with a person''s hand when said flat member is placed over a person''s shoulder; handle means reinforcing means attached to said elongated member to reinforce said member against tearing when heavily loaded, said handle means reinforcing means being located at the junction of said handle means with the remaining portion of said elongated member wherein said handle reinforcing means is embeded in said elongated member on three sides of said opening and is looped around opposite sides of said rotatable handle means; means for attaching coat hangers on the other end of said flat flexible member including a loop formed into said elongated member for attaching coat hangers; said loop having reinforcing means to reinforce said loop against tearing of said flat flexible member; and said flat member being adapted to be rolled up for storage when not in use. 